Too Big To Fail?

Americans are comfortable with a little bit of corruption.  It almost is like we have grown to accept that it is just going to happen and we just need to deal with it.  We have lived through so many different scandals that we have developed a very cynical nature.  There have been so many movies based on government conspiracies that I would wager most Americans believe that there is always some level of conspiracy going on.  It's just how it is.

There are two instances where Americans will no longer deal silently with corruption.  The first is when it starts to affect our life - especially our wallet.  As long as it is someone else's problem, it isn't a problem.  But when it becomes my problem, then we have a problem.  We had an animal living in the pond behind our house.  Well, we have a lot of animals living out there: turtles, fish, ducks, Canadian geese.  But we had this weird animal out there.  I would see it swimming along from time to time.  It looked like a beaver.  I would see it slithering through and diving under the lily pads.  I found out from some of my outdoorsy friends that it was a nutria - basically a giant river rat.  I liked watching it.  Well, one of my neighbors didn't think it was such a cute animal.  Apparently its activities were infringing on my neighbor's happiness.  The rat would come up into the lady's yard and eat her plants.  It would gnaw on the wooden wall constructed to keep water out of the yard.  And the leftovers from its snacks was clogging up our spillway, causing flooding in that yard.  To me, it wasn't an issue.  My yard has a very steep incline, so flooding is not a problem.  I have a fence around my yard, so the rat wasn't going to come up on my property.  But this lady starting making a stink.  She had a few other homeowners on her side due to garden and flooding damage.  She brought it before the HOA Board (which we both are on) and wanted us to pay to have the eradication done.  On top of it all, she was all weird about the animal being killed - which we all knew would be the outcome.  It was going to cost $800 to clear the pond.  I asked how much it cost for a box of bullets.  She didn't appreciate that suggestion.  Now it became my problem.  I didn't want the HOA to spend hundreds of dollars to pull this animal out.  It wasn't bothering me, personally.  I didn't even realize it was a problem at all.   (Things have a funny way of working themselves out.  The rat got run over by a car a couple of weeks later ... before we paid to clear the pond.  I had nothing to do with it.  Promise.)

This is kind of how we approach corruption in the US.  It isn't my problem.  It isn't hurting me.  Don't rock the boat.  But if it encroaches on my comfort, all heck breaks loose.  Look at the investment banking scandal of a few years ago.  Or the Enron/big business scandal.  Or the subprime mortgage collapse.  Or the automaker fiasco.  Those issues had been bubbling for years.  Was anyone surprised that financial advisors were cheating?  I doubt that.  What year did Wall Street come out?  We had been through all of this before, just with different financial elements.  Instead of junk bonds it was Ponzi schemes.  Was the subprime mortgage problem a shock?  How could it be?  How long could banks hand out mortgages to people who couldn't afford to pay for them before the process collapsed?  We know in the back of our minds that things are not always above board with companies, governments, industries, celebrities.  But we turn a blind eye and convince ourselves things may be different this time.  Until it interferes with our life.

The other instance were corruption gets us riled up is when it become blatant.  This is kind of a corollary of the first instance.  Instead of it interfering with our wallets or our lives, it interferes with our comfort.  It makes us feel embarrassed and awkward.   How could we have let this go on?  It makes us look bad.  We frequently see this with celebrities.  We cut actors, musicians, "reality" stars a lot of slack in our country.  It is like we know that they are going to make questionable choices and we are fine with that, as long as it is kept quiet.  If they want to smoke weed, that's fine.  Just don't do it in a park.  If they want to do lines of coke in the bathroom at the Chateau Marmont, that's fine.  Just don't film it and post it on Twitter.  If they want to run a dog fighting ring, so be it.  Just don't advertise the fights.  When those private foibles become public scandals, we throw our hands up in mock indignation.  "How could they do this?!?"  What we are really asking is "how could they be so blatant in their stupidity?"

If you don't think this is accurate, I want you to think back a few years to the Michael Vick dog-fighting scandal.  Vick was going along as a maddeningly erratic and fragile quarterback when we all started to hear about his involvement in a dog-fighting ring.  There were the usual denials, followed by proof of the existence of the ring.  Vick got arrested, tried, and imprisoned for his role in the whole thing.  During the whole process, we heard about how this is a cultural issue.  In the culture that Vick grew up, dog fighting was an acceptable practice.  Vick didn't know that it was a problem.  But it went public and we all went crazy.  Now, think about this.  In the years since Vick's dog fighting ring went public, how many dog fighting rings have you heard about being broken up by the cops?  With the amount of public outrage over Vick's crimes, you would think dog fighting is completely detestable in our country.  And in the dialogue, we kept hearing about how this was cultural - meaning that there are more of these rings going on right now.  Thinking back to how people wanted Vick banned for life from the NFL and imprisoned for a hundred years, shouldn't we have formed some kind of task force to uncover and shut down these dog fighting rings?  We know they are out there, right?  Why aren't there federal agents played by a young Kevin Costner busting into warehouses and backyards across the country, leading dozens of people into paddy wagons?  It isn't happening because it isn't blatantly in our face any more.  It slinked back into the shadows and we left it alone.  As long as Amanda Bynes isn't hurling phones and bongs out of hotel windows, Charlie Sheen isn't showing up drunk for interviews, Justin Bieber isn't racing his silver rocket car through rush hour traffic, these people can be crazy all they want.  Just don't embarrass us with your crazy.  Don't get your crazy on me.  As long as your favorite NCAA team keeps its player payments, arrests, and false test scores quiet, it is fine.  But if it becomes blatant, the team gets blistered.

All of this has come to mind as I observe the NFL.  The National Football League is a mammoth industry that generates gobs of money.  Its influence is not just felt in cities with teams, although those cities certainly do benefit a great deal.  Its presence on television brings huge ratings and advertising dollars to those channels.  Hundreds of companies are intertwined with the NFL: restaurants (McDonald's), soda companies (Pepsi), shoe companies (Nike), computer companies (Lenovo, Microsoft), pizza companies (Papa John's).  It goes on and on.  The NFL took in $1.07 billion from sponsorships last year.  The last television contract was for $8 billion.  That included CBS paying $275 million for the rights to simulcast Thursday night NFL games along with the NFL Network.  They don't have any exclusive rights.  Think about this - CBS is the number one network on television.  On Thursday night they already had the number one comedy show on television.  But they were willing to juggle their entire schedule for the right to run games that were already being shown on another network.  The NFL is enormous.

The spillover effect of the NFL leaves its mark on college and high school athletics.  As technological, medical, and pharmaceutical breakthroughs find success in the NFL, they work their way down the chain.  The same goes for game planning.  And for coaching techniques.  And for desired athlete qualities.  Yes, some things work their way back up the chain like the Nike and Under Armor uniforms from Oregon and Maryland or the wildcat formation.  But for every one innovation that swims upstream, a hundred flow back down.  As the offensive linemen in the NFL got larger and faster, that desirability moved down through the ranks.  As quarterbacks needed to become more mobile, that quality was harvested from below.  In addition to qualities trickling down, so did behavior.  The NFL players make a lot of high risk, high reward plays.  Defensive backs would launch themselves at wide receivers.  Kick coverage teams fly around with reckless abandon.  Running backs put their heads down and bull forward.  Soon college and then high school players began to play the same way.

Through all of this, doctors were concerned about the overall health of younger football players.  Only 6 percent of high school senior players will play in college.  Only 1.7 percent of college seniors will get drafted by the NFL.  That means 0.08% of high school players will ever make it to the NFL.  Out of every 1,000 high school players, not even one will make it to the NFL.  But that allure keeps players striving and aiming to be that one in a thousand.  So, even though there are numerous health risks, players keep going.  Offensive lineman pack on weight to reach the right size, even though they don't do it the right way and are really just massively obese.  Young teens start weight training before doctors would advise that practice.  These students tear up their knees, ankles, backs and doom themselves to a lifetime of pain.  They sow the seeds of drug addictions by using painkillers at a disturbing rate - in addition to other pills like amphetamines and steroids.

Then there is the risk of concussions.  Actually, it shouldn't even be called a risk anymore.  It has basically crossed the line to an occupational hazard.  The numbers are horrifying.  I've talked about concussions before on this blog and there is a ton of research out there telling the truth about concussion dangers.  Players get into dozens of collisions every game that are equivalent to a car crash.  Some players estimate that they get into two to three plays per game that ring their bells and possibly give them a minor concussion.  More and more players are talking about how they already have memory loss.  Bret Favre, who has only been out of the game for a couple years, said he routinely forgets where he is or why he went there.  Former players are committing suicide at an alarming rate.  There are massive health repercussions from ALS to depression to Alzheimer's.

Now we are facing the specter of domestic violence as well.  Ray Rice punches his fiancee out in an elevator and gets suspended for two games.  The NFL reconsidered its punishment after the country lost its collective mind once the video footage hit the airwaves.  Rice's lawyer has complained this is the NFL equivalent of double jeopardy, being tried for the same crime twice.  They actually have some valid arguments there.  There is just too much evidence that the Baltimore Ravens and the NFL knew the extent of Rice's actions and covered it up.  So because they got busted and went into damage control mode, Rice got his contract terminated and his ability to play in the NFL revoked.  Adrian Peterson, one of the biggest stars in the league, beat his four year old son so savagely that he had a dozen open lacerations on his body.  I won't say he disciplined his son because this goes far beyond discipline.  I have kids and understand the concept of punishment.  I also have seen discipline that crossed the line when I was a child.  Peterson was not just punishing his son; he was taking out his anger and frustration on him.  He obviously was not in control in that moment.  And it makes me wonder how many other times that had happened.

At the same moment all of this was happening, several other players were being charged with domestic violence crimes.  The owner of the Dallas Cowboys was being investigated for sexual impropriety - which was largely brushed off because the statute of limitations had expired.  As I watched the reactions of America, it was like it couldn't decide what to do.  This level of corruption and horrific behavior usually would have triggered our offense mechanisms.  But something stopped that.  It was like the fact that it was football and we all love football halted us from going further.  We got angry about Ray Rice and he was punished.  But it stopped there.  Some people were angry about Peterson, but others defended him because it fell under "corporal punishment" and no one wants to step on that issue.  He was deactivated for one game while the investigation started.  But the Vikings actually reinstated him for the next week before a bunch of people lost their minds and the team reconsidered.  In the midst of all of this, the commissioner understandably came under fire for his gross ineptitude.  He scrambled and danced in his press conference and managed to deflect the anger.

To be completely honest, I am fed up with all of it.  I am angry.  I have loved football as long as I have known about sports.  I have great memories watching football: Sunday afternoons with my dad, Super Bowl parties, UCF games, Jaguar games.  But I have reached a breaking point.  This year, I have watched very little football.  I have opportunities.  Last night I was sitting on the couch watching TV and flipping over to the game never entered my mind.  I shuttered my fantasy football league this year that I had run for over a decade.  This isn't just a busy dad finding other things to do.  This year should be the year I want to see the NFL the most.  My favorite team (the Jaguars) drafted a UCF player (Blake Bortles) who is now their starting quarterback.  I know his mom.  She taught both of my sons in preschool.  I remember him as a middle schooler.  I should be glued to the tv during the season.  But I just can't.

I'm not the only one that feels this way.  My favorite sportswriter is Bill Simmons.  I have read his stuff since he first got signed by ESPN.  I love his writing style and his passion for sports.  But I also love the fact that he is a fan first.  He is irate over all of this.  He has been attacking commissioner Goodell for his role in these scandals.  Finally Simmons snapped on a podcast and went off on the commissioner.  He called him a liar - something that the media almost universally has agreed upon.  The end result?  ESPN suspended Simmons for three full weeks without pay.  What!?!  A media member has been questioning the NFL for weeks and finally says what many fans are thinking.  And he gets suspended?  For three weeks!!!  To recap, Ray Rice was originally suspended for two weeks for punching his fiancee so hard she fell backwards and got knocked unconscious.  Then he dragged her out of the elevator like a sack of flour.  Two weeks.  Stephen A Smith, another ESPN personality who is a complete idiot, got suspended for one week for basically saying not to judge Ray Rice too quickly and that the fiancee "may have had it coming."  One week.  Adrian Peterson was originally suspended for one week for savagely beating his four year old.  The other domestic cases originally had no suspensions.  Mike Tirico, another ESPN turd, has been accused of several instances sexual impropriety with no suspensions.  Jerry Jones, owner of the Cowboys, was accused of sexual impropriety with no suspension.  Bill Simmons, tired of all of this bull, went off and was suspended for three weeks.  Why?  Because ESPN is the biggest partner of the NFL and pays $1.7 billion a year to show Monday Night Football.  The NFL told ESPN to get Simmons under control.  You don't believe that happened?  There is precedent.  Years ago, ESPN ran an original series entitled Playmakers that was supposedly based on the NFL.  There was drug use, rape, racism, homophobia.  The NFL threatened to pull out of their relationship with ESPN if the show wasn't cancelled.  Boom.  The show is gone.

I don't get it.  The NFL makes a giant deal about women's issues in October for breast cancer awareness month.  It is the only time players can wear non-uniform elements, as long as they are pink.  But there are players beating up their girlfriends, fiancees, and wives and the NFL does nothing.  And we, as viewers, seem shocked.  Why?  These guys are hopped up on so many supplements and chemicals.  They are in a culture where rage and lack of control is encouraged on the playing field.  How long did we think it would take before that spilled over into their homes?  Didn't professional wrestling teach us anything?  Look at the number of former wrestlers who have died early, committed suicide, attacked their significant others.  One of the saddest stories was Chris Benoit.  He was considered a good guy.  Then he killed his wife, his son, and himself.  Why?  Depression, concussion damage, steroid damage.  "Well that's an extreme case!"  Really?

December 2012.  Kansas City, Missouri.  Twenty-two year old Kansas City Chief player, Javon Belcher, drives to the Chief's facilities.  He shoots himself in front of the head coach and general manager.  It turns out he had murdered his girlfriend earlier.  His body was exhumed last year and last week we found out that his brain showed evidence of CTE - the damage caused by concussions that causes people to lose their memories and control of themselves.  He was 22.  Look at the erratic behavior exhibited by NFL players.  Donte Stallworth is speeding and strikes and kills a man in Miami.  Ray Lewis (doesn't) stab a man to death in a parking lot.  Plaxico Burress shoots himself in the leg.  Josh Gordon keeps failing drug tests.  Jonathan Martin and Richie Icognito have the most unhealthy and bizarre friendship ever, complete with accusations of bullying and racism.  Jadaveon Clowney gets busted for driving over 100 mph down Interstate 77 twice in a week.  There is a laundry list of this stuff.  How long until this boils over?  How long until the corruption is actually bad enough to make us do something?  It is already blatant.  It is already out of control.  But I guess it hasn't affected us personally enough yet.

In 1991 there was a movie that came out called The Last Boy Scout.  It starred Damon Wayans, Bruce Willis, and Halle Berry.  It wasn't a very good movie.  It took place in the world of professional football with Wayans as a pro player and Willis as a detective or something.  There were tons of scenes that hinted at the excesses in the NFL: drugs, sex, money, ignoring injuries.  But one scene has always stuck with me.  It was one of the opening scenes.  A player was taking back a kickoff and pulled out a gun and started shooting the would-be tacklers until he scored and then shot himself.  It came out that this player was in deep with gambling debts and he felt he had to score to keep his family safe.  I thought that was ridiculous.  What player would shoot other players on the field like that?  Less than 25 years later, would you honestly be that shocked if something like that actually happened?  Chances are, it would be stunning.  But not shocking.  That should show you there is a problem.  If a sport actually has fostered an environment where a murder on the field would not be spin-your-head crazy, that sport is out of control.  My question is if that possible tragedy would even be enough to take down the NFL.

An Open Letter to Blake Bortles

Dear Blake -

Hi.  How are you doing?  Pretty big week this week, wasn't it?  It must be hard to wrap your mind around.  On Tuesday, you were the starting quarterback of UCF - the "undeserving" recipient of the last BCS-based American Conference invite to a "big BCS bowl."  On Thursday, you were the Bearkiller.  MVP of the Fiesta Bowl.  Mr Clutch.  Hot NFL draft commodity.  Subject of an ESPN poll about if we knew who you were or not.  Topic of national sports discussion on various outlets (Dan Patrick, ESPN, NFL).  Quite the life-altering week.

You don't know me.  I don't really know you.  I know your mom (unlike the ESPN cameramen).  She was the preschool teacher for both of my sons.  I have a distant memory of a young version of you at some event for the preschool.  But we don't know each other at all.  I have watched you play.  As a fan, I have definitely cheered loudly for you.  Truthfully, there were times I yelled at you for some mistake you make.  But for the most part, I have just been impressed by you.  Your talent, your poise, your leadership, your guts, your fearlessness, your heart.  You are that kind of athlete that it is easy for a fan to cheer for.  You aren't surly or self-absorbed.  You don't have a long rap sheet of off the field mistakes. You say all the right stuff.  And you win.

You are probably too young to really understand what you mean to a UCF fan.  We have lived in the shadows of the "big boys" of college football for decades.  Twenty years ago we started to build a "real" football team.  We wanted to be taken seriously as a university and knew that it would never happen without that feature.  We went through years and years of playing in the bowels of college football.  Then we went through years and years of close calls - big games where we played valiantly and failed.  Nebraska. Georgia. Mississippi State, Ohio State. We came close so many times, but still lost.  Then we watched as other upstart programs gained the respect we so desperately craved.  Boise State went from being a potato farm to a BCS buster.  East Carolina, Appalachian State, Miami (Ohio).  They all took down the big guys.  And then worst of all, that stinking, no good USF started up a football program after us, raced past us, gained national notoriety, beat the crap out of us, and then dismissed us as a pointless frivolity they needn't be bothered with.

For years, we had to listen to USF fans mouth off at us.  They could win all these big time games.  We never could.  (The fact they consistently lost to teams "beneath them" was conveniently left out of the argument.  But I digress...)  Fans of the big dog schools like UF and FSU and UM were cruel.  They were bullies.  They ridiculed us and ignored us.  We were their "cupcake" scheduling.  It got to be disheartening.  And every time we made a little progress, it seemed like we got beaten back again.

We knew we had potential.  But it started to sound like one of those people on American Idol who swear they "can sing."  We sounded delusional.  Every time we went into a big game and tried to convince people (and ourselves) that we could win, well, they called us crazy.  And it was crazy.  Even when we beat a dominant program (like Alabama), it was when they were in a bad year.  It felt like we were forever stuck in the land of irrelevance.  The final straw was when we finally scratched our way into a BCS conference, it was one that was completely in shambles.

But that was all before you, before this year.  This year, everything changed.  This year, all of those pieces that never quite came together suddenly fit.  All of those nagging weaknesses that had crippled us for years seemed to disappear.  We went into Penn State and won a tough game.  We hosted #6 South Carolina on national television and almost won.  No, we should have won.  Even South Carolina fans admit they got away with that game.  See, I live in Columbia, SC now.  Nobody was crowing after that game up here.  They knew they got lucky.  Then we beat Louisville, even though it seemed impossible.  No game was ever over until the gun went off.  People starting calling UCF the Cardiac Knights.  They pulled most games out of their . . . um . . . armor.  See, we normally lost those games.  There were other years when we had success within our grasp and managed to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory.  That Temple game this year?  The USF one?  The SMU Ice Bowl?  Those are games we would have lost in other years.  But not this team. They never gave up.

Well, you never gave up.  You had that same quality about you that Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck and John Elway had.  When things got tough, when your back was against the wall, you refused to buckle.  Even the South Carolina game was that way.  If the game had another minute in it, we would have been 12-0.  No game was truly lost.  It was terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.

Then came the Fiesta Bowl.  For weeks, people asked me how I thought UCF would do.  I said the same thing.  "Of all of the BCS teams, I think we have the best shot against Baylor.  It will be tough.  But I think we have a chance."  Man, did we.  We beat the most explosive offense in the country by 10 points - even though we had back to back to back turnovers.  There is no explanation for that.  That was the kind of momentum shift that used to kill UCF.  It looked like the South Carolina game.  But that collapse never happened.  That Baylor explosion never came.  And when you came out in the second half and scored on four straight possessions, people all over the country finally realized that UCF truly did belong on the big stage.  And you belonged on the big stage, probably the biggest stage.  Blake Bortles - NFL quarterback.

Most of the discussion in the last few days has been about if you are coming back to UCF next year.  I admit, I am curious as well.  I certainly would love for you to return.  But...

I watched Daunte Culpepper from his first game at UCF to his last.  I remember mentally pleading with him to come back in his senior year to give us a chance to go 11-0.  He did come back, but we never did reach the zenith with him.  Then Kevin Smith came along.  We all psychically urged him to return as well, but he didn't.  He went to the NFL.  Staying may have helped his career, but not his knees.  Here we are again with a superstar.  And the UCF fan in me wants to beg again for you to come back, to possibly take us even farther into our destiny.  But that wouldn't be fair.

You have done more for UCF than we could have imagined.  You have put our entire school on your shoulders and carried us all the way to Glendale and back.  You pulled us those last steps that we never seemed to be able to make.  We are now nationally recognized.  We have gained respect.  UCF is not just a directional Florida school.  It is a team to be reckoned with.  What more could we ask of you?  In my wildest dreams, I think that we could run the table and maybe snag one of those four playoff spots next January.  In more realistic thoughts, I imagine that we will end up in another prestigious bowl with another big payday to invest in the future.  You'll be a Heisman candidate.  We'll have a great year.

Or.... You could get hurt.  God forbid, you could get hurt.  Or we could just as easily lose a few of those nailbiters we won this year.  You could see your draft stock drop like Matt Barkley did.  I don't want that to happen.  So, that is why I am not going to beg you to come back.  I want you to do what is best for you.  I want you to go to the NFL if you think that is the best thing for your future.  I want you to come back if you think the extra experience will help.  But don't come back for us.  You've already given us everything we could ask and more.  If you leave, I will root for you every Sunday.  I'll probably get a "Bortles" jersey.  If you can manage to get picked by the Jaguars, I'll be over the moon happy.  I will support you in the pros just like every UCF alum out there.  Actually, that's not true.  I'll support you more.  That's how fans show their gratitude.

So, thank you for your time at UCF.  Thank you for helping us to believe the crazy can happen.  Thank you for never giving up, even when you could have justified doing that.  And thank you for helping us to know what it feels like to "win the big game."  I wish you all the best - be it in Orlando, Jacksonville, Oakland, or Cleveland.  (Well, I wish you better than Cleveland.)  I'll follow you on Saturdays or Sundays, whatever you choose.  Blake and Gold, all the way.

Your Appreciative Fan,

David

UCFan

On Saturday, we went to a Christmas party for Heather's work.  One of the third year residents had recently gotten married to a "guy from UCF" - that was the extent of my knowledge of the young man.  At one point, they were sitting on the couch and I walked up to ask if they were going to Arizona for UCF's Fiesta Bowl appearance.  They ecstatically answered in the affirmative.  I found out he actually works in the sports marketing department at UCF, which is just so cool to me.  Off and on for the next several hours, I chatted with Ryan about UCF's sports programs.  We watched the Heisman trophy presentation and I asked if he would be working on a Heisman campaign for Blake Bortles, UCF QB, if he comes back next year.  He said he would.  Then we talked about how Blake actually has a tough decision because he could legitimately be a top ten pick in this draft.  This all seemed like a perfectly sane conversation.

Yesterday, I got a text from my friend Candy.  She is a UCF alum, as is her husband, Allen - one of my roommates in college.  We have kept up with them and they are some of our best friends.  While we lived in Orlando, we usually spent New Year's Eve with them at our house.  Our move to Columbia seemed to end that tradition.  Not so fast!  They are going to be traveling for the holidays and will be staying with us over New Year's.  In her text, she said, "Aren't you excited we will be there for the Fiesta Bowl?!?"  I hadn't connected that.  I've watched a ton of UCF games this year, all alone.  The thought of having fellow UCF fans here?  On New Year's Day?  To watch UCF in a bowl game?  Heck yes, I'm excited.  Again, a perfectly sane exchange.

Rewind about 20 years.  I had recently shed my lifelong love of the University of Georgia to firmly align with UCF.  If I was going to spend thousands of dollars at a school to get a degree, I was going to get the most I could out of the experience.  Student tickets to football games were free, so I went to most of the home games.  We were small time football.  There was a big battle on the campus between the academics who felt that a school should rely on its academic achievements alone and those who believe that a strong successful sports program enhances the school as a whole.  The new university President, Dr Hitt, was trying to walk the fine line between sides while pushing what he knew was best - sports is a billboard for the school.  UCF was going to transition to Division I and had to spend a couple years in I-AA.  So our schedule was made up of teams like Garner-Webb and Bethune-Cookman.   We envied powerhouse schools like Georgia Southern and Youngstown State.  There would be louder cheers from the crowd when the UF or FSU scores were announced than when UCF scored.

My senior year, through a bizarre set of circumstances, we landed Daunte Culpepper.  He should have been at a big name school.  But here we were, sitting in the Citrus Bowl, watching someone who was the best player on the field by leaps and bounds.  We almost beat Nebraska in Lincoln, starting an annoying trend of "almost beating" big teams.  Daunte was invited to the Heisman Trophy award ceremony.  He got drafted 11th by the Vikings.  We never even won a I-AA title, but didn't care because it was a just a transitional stage - starting an annoying trend of looking too far ahead and being mediocre where we were.  We got into trouble with the NCAA, starting an annoying trend of being on the wrong side of the law.  And we watched teams like USF pop up and race past us.  It was frustrating to be a UCF fan.  Big schools like UF and FSU didn't take us seriously.  Lesser schools like USF and Bowling Green didn't take us seriously.  Even doody schools like Miami (Ohio) and Marshall didn't take us seriously.  We were just kind of farting around.

Ten years ago, UCF fired Mike Kruczek as head coach.  There was an uproar among some fans because Kruczek was the one who recruited Daunte.  That fact alone had gotten him the head coaching job and kept him there.  And to some, he could have ridden that score forever.  But there was a simple fact at play: we weren't going anywhere as long as we kept Kruczek.  It was the same fact that ultimately led to the firing of Kirk Speraw as basketball coach.  Both of those guys were good coaches.  They mostly had winning teams.  Every so often, we would pop into the postseason in some way - mostly as cannon fodder or a footnote.  But UCF would be terminally trapped in mediocrity.  The school itself was exploding in size and renown.  There was no justifiable reason why a school ranked in the top five nationally in enrollment in a massive sports state like Florida should be putzing around like UCF was.

Just like when Daunte came to town, UCF got lucky again.  George O'Leary had an impressive resume.  He had been named National Coach of the Year while at Georgia Tech.  They went to big bowl games five years in a row.  And he had been hired as coach of Notre Dame.  But his resume was a little TOO good.  It turned out he had said he had a master's degree and had lettered in football.  It was resume padding - something that many people over the years have done to break into the business.  But he didn't remove the padding once he "made it."  And so he was fired.  He ended up getting hired by the Minnesota Vikings as their defensive coordinator, where he led them from 30th in the NFL in defense to 10th.  UCF saw a huge opportunity.  O'Leary was obviously a great coach.  His errors in judgment didn't affect that.  So they jumped and hired O'Leary as their new head coach.  UCF got tons of coverage for the hiring.  They also got tons of coverage the next year, when they went 0-11.  Hardly a promising start.

The first six years or so of O'Leary's tenure was rough to say the least.  UCF would alternate winning records and losing records for six years.  There were some extremely frustrating experiences.  I called for his firing on multiple occasions, especially after USF beat the tar out of us 62-12 in 2007.  I even went so far as to submit some slightly cruel questions to his radio show like "Does living without a soul make you cold?"  We had a major NCAA investigation thanks to our cheating Athletic Director.  A player died during workouts.  It seemed like things would never get better.

But things were getting better.  UCF's graduation rates were among the highest in the nation.  We were being shown on national television.  We actually started to win some of those games we used to "almost win."  There still were maddening failures.  We still always were on the outside looking in with the major conferences.  When we finally got invited to join one, it was the collapsing Big East.  But progress was being made.  We had another Heisman candidate in Kevin Smith.  Former UCF players like Matt Prater, Brandon Marshall, and Josh Sitton were excelling in the NFL.

It seemed like everything clicked this past year.  UCF's affiliation with the Big East (sorry, American Conference) paid off in the final year of the BCS.  There was an automatic bid with a championship to one of the "big bowls" - Orange, Sugar, Fiesta, Rose.  Our homegrown quarterback, Blake Bortles, morphed into a big time college player.  [Side note, Blake's mom was Josiah's and Gabe's preschool teacher.  That certainly makes all of this even more exciting.]  Last year, we almost knocked off Ohio State.  This year, we actually did beat Penn State in their stadium.  We only lost to South Carolina by three and should have won that game.  Living up here, it was interesting to see the nation's opinion of UCF change so rapidly.  The people I encountered up here prior to the game thought it was just another cupcake for Clowney and company to feast upon.  I kept saying they needed to watch out; UCF was better than they thought.  It was a tough game to watch because UCF was the better team.  Time after time they shot themselves in the foot.  USC won, but UCF came storming back and probably would have taken the game if it had gone to overtime.  The thing is, USC fans knew that.  After that, anytime people saw my UCF shirt or license plate, they responded differently.  "Man, you almost got us."  Or, "you guys have a good team this year."  These were SEC people who usually see the rest of the college football landscape as the minor leagues.  They saw UCF as a threat.

That ability to come storming back and never give up became the hallmark of this UCF team.  It felt like we were losing just about every game at some point in the fourth quarter.  No game was ever over until the final gun.  Time and again, UCF came through.  Blake Bortles and the Defense refused to let UCF lose.  We knocked off eighth ranked, undefeated Louisville in their house on a Thursday night on ESPN.  We were on ESPN for four games and ABC for the first time ever.  UCF ended up 11-1, undefeated in conference play, ranked 15th, and in the Fiesta Bowl against Baylor.  Less than twenty years after saying "How could we possibly expect to beat Youngstown State? They are a national power."  Ten years after being ranked dead last in the NCAA Division I.  We were playing in a BCS bowl.  We had a nationally ranked team.  We had another Heisman candidate, with a real shot at starting in the NFL.

An interesting statistic was mentioned during the Blizzard Bowl against SMU last week.  The few seniors UCF have (just seven) finished their college career with 37 wins in their four years - an average of 9 wins a year.  They actually won 11, 5, 10, and 11 games.  How does 37 wins across the last four years stack up?  Let us see.

• Florida - 30 wins
• FSU - 40 wins
• USF - 18 wins
• Miami - 29 wins
• Texas - 30 wins
• South Carolina - 41 wins
• USC - 34 wins

Let's just say it isn't bad.  UCF and George O'Leary has built something in Orlando.  The most impressive thing about this team is that there were only seven seniors.  UCF should be better next year.  Do you mind if I type that again?  It's my blog, so I can do what I want.  UCF should be better next year.  There are a bunch of assumptions to that statement.  Blake Bortles could go pro, which would effectively render that line of thinking moot.  The American Conference isn't going to be much better next year.  Louisville is leaving for greener pastures.  And our non-conference games are even better next year.  Missouri, BYU, and Penn State IN IRELAND!!!  That guarantees several nationally televised games.  We obviously will get a lot of coverage for the Fiesta Bowl.  And if we beat Baylor....

That is the wonderful thing about being a UCF fan right now.  We've been through a lot over the years.  Finally having success feels so good.  But having hope as a fan is even better.  Is it crazy to say we could beat Baylor?  Oh yeah.  But, at this point, crazy isn't so crazy any more.  Who would have thought we could beat Penn State or Louisville this year?  Or what about hanging in there with South Carolina to where we gave the game away, which is entirely different than getting beaten outright?   Who would have thought we would be 11-1 or in a BCS bowl or ranked 15 or anything that happened this year?  It is all crazy.  So, talking about beating Baylor has become a perfectly sane conversation.  

Why I Want Peyton Manning to Sign with Miami

I hate the Miami Dolphins.  I have never been shy to admit this.  I'm not exactly sure what created this pure hatred in my sports heart.  I think it was a combination of the fact that, growing up in South Florida, I was inundated with Dolphins coverage.  I had adopted the Cowboys as my NFL team of choice.  But, down in West Palm Beach (or Miami Jr., as I sometimes think of it), it was assumed that everyone was a Dol-Fan.  The newspapers would have page after page breaking down every play.  The news stations would spend four of their five minutes on sports talking about Miami teams.  News on other teams was usually limited to a paragraph on the "team by team capsule" page.  [Please keep in mind this was before ESPN owned all the sports leagues and Al Gore invented the interwebs.]  As a result, I grew to despise the Miami franchises.  The Dolphins and Hurricanes are both my least favorite teams in their respective leagues.  Since there was no Miami baseball team at the time, I turned my hatred to the Atlanta Braves - although over time I have learned to hate the Marlins as well.  And, thanks to LeBron and the rest, I have firmly placed the Heat in the Hate Zone.

My hatred for the Dolphins has only grown over the years.  As I have aged, I have realized some of my team-related anger is misplaced.  I have even found myself having somewhat fond feelings for teams that I used to loathe.  I really admire the way that some teams (Packers, Steelers) do business - something I didn't care about when I was 10, but appreciate now.  But the Dolphins have never received that mercy from me.  There are several reasons why.  First, the 1972 Dolphins are the most obnoxious single team in NFL history.  Some people think it is great how this one team continues to celebrate their perfect season.  Each year I root harder for another team to go 19-0 just to shut them up.  Second, Dolphins fans are on par with Gator fans for annoying behavior.  Back when the Dolphins started 10-2 before tanking December and missing the playoffs, Miami fans would crow and hoot about their team.  Then they quietly would disappear as their team did.  Now the Dolphins start every year 2-10 and then catch fire in December.  These same fans are eerily quiet for three months and then start yapping about how they are going to be unstoppable next year.  It gets old.  [Yes, I am perfectly aware that I am beyond biased.]  Third, Miami fans are some of the worst, more sports ignorant, fair weather fans in the world.  All you need to know is this: the Heat failed to sell out NBA Finals games when they stole their title.  How in the world do you have a non-sellout final game?!?  Fourth, the Heat are in Miami.  There is a major crossover of fan bases.  Enough for me.

That was all to give you a little history why I will make this next statement.  I desperately hope that Peyton Manning signs with Miami.  This is not because I think the Dolphins have suffered long enough.  I am not hoping he turns the franchise around.  I want him to sign with the Dolphins because I think that Manning, more than perhaps any other player in history, is the perfect athlete to increase and lengthen the agony of the Miami Dolphins.  I think that he can drag out their misery for another few years.  There also is a good chance that signing him will hurt the team longer than his career.  I'm all for that.  Here are some specific reasons why I feel this way.

1. Manning Can't Finish - From his days at Tennessee to his time in Indy, Manning has proven that he cannot finish.  He can run up 14-0 records, set passing marks score 50 points a game.  But, when it counts, he gets the yips and watches someone else lift the trophy.  He never won the Heisman - despite being the most dominant college player for four years.  He never won the National Championship - the Volunteers won after he left.  Even though the Colts frequently were the number one seed with a bye week, Manning only won one Super Bowl.  And that year the NFC put up the Bears, the equivalent of the Republican party running John McCain against Obama.  It reminds me of another great quarterback - Dan Marino.  See?  It's perfect.

2. Manning And the Florida Heat - I don't mean the super-obnoxious NBA franchise.  I am referring to the South Florida heat.  For the last fourteen years, Peyton Manning has played at least half his games in a climate controlled dome with a perfectly constructed field.  He has never had to deal with playing the majority of his games outside in the burning hot Florida sun.  Some would argue that Manning has done well in his trips to Florida - against the Gators, Dolphins, and Jaguars.  Manning was 0-4 against the Gators.  He is 14-5 against the Jaguars (okay, bad example), 5-7 against the Dolphins, and 2-0 against the Bucs.  However, even a positive record in Florida is different than playing there for the majority of your games, practicing there, going through summer training camps in the blistering, surface of the sun heat.  Throw in the unstable weather, the rain, the mud, the poor fields.  Should be great.

3. Manning and the Miami Heat - LeBron James and the Heat have said that Manning should come to Miami.  That alone is a bad omen.

4. Manning is Bound to Disappoint Physically - I don't care how well that Manning says he is playing. He has had three neck surgeries in the last eighteen months.  He is 36.  He is one of the most prepared and disciplined players in NFL history.  But that doesn't mean a whole lot when your body gives out on you.  It is only a matter of time.  Even if he makes it through one year or two years, this is not a long term decision physically.

5. Derails Long Term Planning - Everyone that assesses the NFL draft talks about how deep this draft is for quarterbacks.  The Dolphins have not had a strong quarterback since Dan Marino.  They have constantly been bringing in retreads, long shots, and big whiffs.  What they need to do is start from scratch and get someone they can build a franchise on.  Instead they are foregoing that in a deep draft and going all in for the immediate.  The really goofy things is that no one believes the Dolphins are one player from a title.  So throwing all in on Manning could cost Miami for years.  Awesome.

6. Brady/Eli Factor - Both Tom Brady and Eli Manning are tired of always hearing that Peyton Manning is the best quarterback around.  So both of those guys perform to their absolute peak when playing Peyton.  Now Brady will be playing Peyton twice a year.  As if the Patriots didn't already love beating down the Dolphins as frequently as possible, imagine their glee when they get to do it with number 18 at the helm.

7. Poetic Justice - The Dolphins have been defined in many ways by the amazing play and failure to close of Dan Marino.  Now they are turning to another quarterback that fits that category.  The Dolphins for the last fifteen years have been marked by streaky play.  They either start off strong out the gate and then stumble at the end or they suck tailpipe for three months and then do great at the end.  Now they are picking up a quarterback who has made a career out of that behavior.  The Dolphins are a franchise whose best days are behind them and who are living off past successes.  Well, you know.  It just makes sense.

So that is my completely unbiased reasoning for why I hope Peyton Manning decides to take his receding talents to South Beach.  In short, I hope that he goes there to give the Dolphins hope, only to take it away - thereby crushing the spirit of all Dolfans everywhere.  If that is hateful, so be it.  That's sports.  Meanwhile, I - like all Jaguar fans - will watch Tim Tebow perform minor miracles semi-consistently to a rabid and sold out stadium and wonder why oh why my team passed on him in favor of some no name defensive lineman.  All sports fans carry some baggage.  I hope the Dolphins' will include a past-his-prime Peyton Manning.

2011 in Review: The Year Sports Imploded

In the coming weeks, you will be inundated with Year in Review posts from every self-obsessed blogger out there, as well as every news, entertainment, and sports site.  So, far be it from me to avoid jumping on the bandwagon.  My seven followers demand no less.  I have always been a sucker for Year in Review stuff.  It was a fun way to go back through and revisit events and remember where I was.  Now that I am older, I often forget what happens on a day to day basis, let alone stuff that went on back in February.  So these recaps are useful for me.  "The Royal Wedding II was THIS year? Man it seems like forever ago."

As I go through these posts, though, I want to do something different than just a recap.  I am not qualified enough to give a thorough rundown of the importance of events.  And I am biased.  Things that don't interest me would not be included - even if the rest of the world think they are important.  Looking at Yahoo!'s top news stories of the year, they had the Casey Anthony trial and the death of Amy Winehouse.  Those may have been notable - but I never would have listed those.  I also don't know how many of these I'll do.  It's like Christmas - surprises around every turn.

I'm going to start with sports.  Again, I don't plan on just recapping who won the different titles.  If it isn't my teams (it's never my teams) then I really could care less once the event is over.  I had to think for a minute to even remember who the title winners were this year.  Instead, I want to look at how sports in general progressed (or regressed . . . mainly regressed) in my view.  This year will be forever remembered (by me) as the year the sports world lost its collective mind.  It also will be the year that, for the first time, my affection for sports was smaller than my disdain for sports.  If I were being polled on if I viewed sports favorably or unfavorably, it is definitely unfavorably.  Here are some of the biggest reasons.

NBA LOCKOUT: Personally, I was more irritated by the NFL labor situation than the NBA one.  But I am putting them in this order so that I can highlight some points.  The NBA lockout was frustrating on many levels.  The biggest is no matter how noble some of the points were, the basic concept of millionaires fighting with billionaires over money still is hard for most Americans to stomach.  But it didn't affect me that much.  I don't usually watch basketball until the All Star break anyway.  I'm too busy with football.  So the NBA starting late didn't bother me.  And the reasons FOR the lockout were somewhat understandable: player salaries are out of control, there needs to be some level of revenue sharing, fans of small teams need some hope.  So I could see that and realize something needed to be done.  What I hate about these labor situations, though, is that the people who get hurt the most aren't the players or owners.  They are the complementary industry people.  Living in Orlando, I was made more aware of stuff like this.  The city paid a LOT of money to open a new arena for the Magic.  There are tons of companies whose existence are completely dependent on the Magic playing.  The city itself was counting on the All Star game.  It was awarded because of the new arena.  And it was constantly threatened.  People lost their income; some lost their jobs.  And for what?  At the end of the day, nothing seemed to change.  Immediately after the new agreement was signed, owners started overpaying players, players in small markets started manipulating the new rules to escape to big cities, and the teams took the opportunity to cut staff.  The Magic had promised they would not cut positions during the lockout.  Immediately after the agreement was reached, the team laid off twenty employees and eliminated twelve seasonal positions that had not been opened yet this year.  Good job, guys.

NFL LOCKOUT: Basically, take the offensiveness of the NBA lockout, remove the legitimate concerns.  There's the NFL lockout.  Where the NBA one at least was somewhat about reconstructing a flawed system, the NFL was purely about money.  It was two sets of extremely wealthy individuals fighting over EIGHT BILLION DOLLARS.  Bill Simmons likened to Scarface, with the giant pile of coke on the table.  Except with this lockout it was a gigantic pile of dollar bills - and there was a gang war over who got the most.  Yes, there were some peripheral issues that were addressed.  But those could have been dealt with during a conference call or small meeting.  The lockout was strictly money.  I don't know about you, but that is extremely hard for me to accept.  The cities are the ones who built the stadiums, who provide the fans, who create the secondary companies.  And they are basically told to shut up and sit on the sidelines while the money is split up.  Lots of people have already forgotten the lockout and moved on.  I'm not like that.  I never really was interested in baseball after their last labor problem.  I can still enjoy a game, but I never have been as invested in.  I have a feeling this lockout (along with #8) will have a similar effect on me.  I rarely check my fantasy lineups.  I only watch games when I'm with my in-laws.  That's pretty bad for a guy whose favorite sport (by far) is football.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL SCANDALS: It seems like scandals have ben a part of college sports for as long as I can remember.  I very clearly recall SMU getting the "death penalty" in football back in the 1980s.  I remember when Florida won the SEC and couldn't take the title.  But this past year seems like it was one of the worst I can remember - not even including #4.  Ohio State sent Jim Tressel packing due to coverups.  USC can't play in a bowl game from numerous issues.  Miami penalized themselves to try to avoid bigger sanctions.  Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton was surrounded with controversy as he won the national title.  The national title game was jokingly referred to as the battle for which team would earn the right to forfeit the title in five years.  Even my beloved UCF was caught up in recruiting violations all over the place.  Throw in the inappropriate behavior by the Fiesta Bowl officials and the questionable movements by lying head coaches and you have a for a very rotten system.  Of course, that all pales in comparison to the next point.

PENN STATE and SYRACUSE SCANDALS: I wrote about the Penn State Jerry Sandusky scandal when it first surfaced.  And it just seems to get worse.  That is coupled by the accusations that emerged about the Syracuse men's basketball program.  Both schools have many similarities - a small city that is completely wrapped up with the university in question, a long time head coach who seems to transcend other authorities in the area, a long time assistant coach who has almost as much power as the head coach and is shielded by the head coach.  Both are heinous.  Due to the scope and detail of the Penn State case, it is worse.  It seems like just the tip of the iceberg has been discovered, too.  What happened to that D.A. who was investigating and disappeared?  How in the world can Sandusky be so adamant about his innocence?  How many more kids will come forward?  These were two of the "good programs" in college sports.  They didn't deal with the scandals and the negative garbage - or so it seemed.  Instead they were hiding horrific secrets.

NBA PLAYER MOVEMENT:  One of the biggest stories of last year was LeBron James stringing along the people of Cleveland (and New York) before bolting to Miami to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to form a "super team." One of the biggest stories of this year was James choking the Finals as the Heat lost to the Mavericks for the NBA title.  At least, that is the story to average people.  To NBA stars, it showed that James' plan to bolt and partner with his buddies instead of making a career in one city worked.  Remember, this was the FIRST YEAR in Miami.  They didn't even figure out how to make all those egos work until half way through the year.  They will probably run roughshod over the league this year, now that they have had time to work together.  It was like the floodgates opened.  Now, big shot players started to force their owners' hands to allow them to leave for bigger markets.  Carmelo Anthony held Denver hostage until they sent him to New York to partner with Amare Stoudemire.  Deron Williams did the same thing in Utah, ending up in New Jersey.  So, one of the big sticking points in the NBA lockout was finding a way to keep these big name players tied to their teams - even if it was in a small market.  So, what happened?  The agents had figured out a way to circumvent the process before it was even started.  A player could sign for far more money with their current team than any other in free agency.  So, instead of playing out their contract, now these players are forcing trades a year early so they can resign with their dream team.  It is dirty pool.  Chris Paul did it the Hornets.  Then David Stern went completely bananas and voided the trade with NO GOOD CAUSE.  It was perfectly legal.  Stern was just ticked that the players were able to go around the rules so fast.  Now Dwight Howard is about to do it Orlando.  These guys all want to team up and, in effect, create a handful of "super teams."  You'll have superstar jammed teams in Boston, Miami, Chicago, L.A., New York (which includes the Nets now).  Then the other teams will basically be the farm system to the big teams.  It is going to turn into baseball.  The small teams draft and develop talent, get a few years out of those players, and watch them leave to win titles.  As a Magic fan, I detest this.  I know all the fans of big teams love it.  Yet another reason to not care a whit about basketball.

MLB PLAYER MOVEMENT: For years, I have hated how the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, and Phillies poach big name free agents from the smaller teams.  I have learned to really like the Tampa Bay Rays.  They play in a division with the two richest, most loaded teams in the sport.  Yet, they still make the playoffs on a regular basis.  They have a payroll that is a third as big as the Red Sox, but they eliminated Boston from the playoffs last year.  The problem is, they can't keep up.  The Rays had an amazing team a few years back - one that easily could have won a World Series if it had five years to play together.  But they got one shot.  Then they got poached.  The thing is, those players that flee for bigger paychecks seem to be disappointing more often than not.  Take Carl Crawford.   On Tampa he was the big dog - making all the right plays.  He was a legend.  In Boston, he's getting booed.  He's just another overpaid player who isn't reaching the impossible to reach expectations.  It is the perpetual question for these superstar athletes.  If they stay with their original team, they will become legendary.  But they will probably leave money on the table and may only win one title (or they may never win one).  If they leave, they COULD become one of the biggest stars ever.  Chances are they won't, but they will at least be rich. Look at A-Rod.  If he had stayed in Seattle his whole career, he would have been seen as the greatest of all time.  He probably would have one ring at the end.  Now, though, he is seen as the flagship example of the overpaid athlete.  He's widely mocked and ridiculed.  He still could be the greatest of all time, but no one likes him.  And he still has just one ring.  My hope had been that things would be different with Albert Pujols.  He was so synonymous with the Cardinals.  He is such a nice guy and good model.  I hoped he would be willing to buck the trend.  Instead, he listened to his horrible jerk agent (seriously, go read about that guy) and signed with the Angels.  Now he's just another big name on a big team.  Another owner trying to outspend the rest for a title.  Pujols will be richer.  But he'll never be as loved or legendary as if he had stayed.

COLLEGE CONFERENCE INSANITY: Boise State is in the Big East.  That is all you really need to know to understand just how stupid this whole conference realignment process has been.  It was a mad scramble to consolidate power.  No one wanted to be left out of the big money.  And, like with the lockouts, no one wanted to share.  The big teams don't want to see other teams develop and enter their ranks.  They want to keep the other teams down.  If big schools had their way, they would pare down their own conferences and just have a mega conference with only the elite schools.  Instead, we had a massive reshuffling of the deck.  Syracuse and Pitt are in the ACC?  Nebraska is in the Big 10?  Colorado is in the Pac 12?  Rivalries, histories, allegiances.  All of those went out the window.  All that mattered was getting a piece of the pie.  Texas and Texas A&M aren't in the same conference any more.  Neither are Nebraska and Colorado.  Then the Big East, the weakest and most vulnerable of the BCS conferences, had to find some way to survive.  So they pulled in two Texas teams, one California team, probably one Colorado team, and Boise State.  It was all about getting Boise State.  And for the Broncos - the team with the best record in the nation over the last five years - they got tired of watching the big paydays from their dorm rooms.  So they needed a seat.  As a UCF fan, I'm not going to lie and say I'm not excited to be in the Big East.  I will now get to see a real rivalry with USF develop.  I will be able to watch some of the best college basketball teams in my own backyard.  And I'll have the chance to watch the incredible Boise State Broncos play my Knights.  I just hate the machinations that happened to get things there.  And I realize that for those teams left on the outside looking in, their hope to ever play for something significant is basically dead.

FOOTBALL CONCUSSION PROBLEMS: The concussion issue has been bubbling at the surface for a few years now.  The studies have been out there.  The arguments have been starting.  But it seems like in 2011, things accelerated.  The NFL had enacted measures last year to try to avoid concussions and help players who had suffered them.  But this year we watched as players who obviously had experienced a head trauma go back into the game.  We saw multiple retired players die unexpectedly and under suspicious circumstances.  We also saw college and (especially) high school players get seriously hurt - or even die - from head injuries.  Football has become a sport that is on the verge of improving itself to death.  The rules that were enacted decades ago do not take into account how fast and strong modern players have become.  The human body is not built to take that much damage.  And if we see athletes from the 80s dying due to complications from head injuries, how much worse is it going to be with modern players?  (The same thing goes for professional wrestling.  How many wrestlers have to die in their 40s or start to act completely irrationally before we realize there is a serious problem?)  I have not been able to enjoy football anywhere near as much since I started reading about concussions.  And with every story like Dave Duerson's, I get detached a little bit more.

There were some great sports moments.  But it seemed like this year had more than its share of negative ones:  Dan Whedon dying in a wreck and the Oklahoma State coaches dying in a plane crash, the idiotic riots in Vancouver when they lost the Stanley Cup, the attack by Dodger fans on the Giants fan.  It used to be that sports was an escape from the ugliness of the news.  Instead, it has become just another source of disappointment and stuff I don't want my kids to hear or see.  And I am less and less interested in it.  I think there is a larger divide between sports and the common person.  I can't relate.  I don't understand why it is necessary to squeeze every dollar out of a contract.  Isn't $220 million enough?  Why does it have to be $250 million?  I don't see how it benefits colleges to screw over other colleges.  I can't understand how you can turn a blind eye to children being abused or players knowingly getting seriously hurt or your own employees suffering.  There are certain qualities I find important in my own life.  And I find that those are less and less represented in the world of sports.  I know there are people out there who will cry, "You are so old fashioned!  You can't impose your values on other people!  Wouldn't you take a higher paying job if you could?!?"  I am old fashioned.  I miss being able to cheer for a player and know they will spend their career with one team.  I believe in loyalty.  I have taken less money (or no money) to work at a place I believed in.  More than anything, I guess my love affair with sports has ended because we just grew apart - like Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries did.  Sports and I don't want the same things.  We have irreconcilable differences.  It has been this way for a while.  I suppose this year was the one where I couldn't take it any more.  Sports just went too far.  It wasn't one moment; it was a lot of moments.  That's what I'll remember about 2011 when I think of sports.  It was the year it went nuts.

The Death of Sports

I'm not sure exactly when it happened.  It probably was a gradual thing.  But my love for sports is dead.  I came to this realization the other day.  It was sad, but I think I saw it coming.  I have been disappointed with sports for a while now.  This blog has seen its share of my complaints over the years.  I always assumed those were like disagreements between friends - something that could be worked out over time or ignored for the sake of the relationship.  Not any more.  This is a full fledged break up.

I have always loved sports.  Not playing them, mind you.  I loved watching them, reading about them, talking about them.  I never quite went as far as some kids - where they become walking encyclopedias of every little sport fact.  I had friends like that and they annoyed me.  "Hey, you know how many doubles Dale Murphy hit off left handed pitchers on road trips while the moon was in its second phase?"  I liked to follow stuff, know who was leading categories, cheer for my teams.  I had football and baseball cards.  I always watched the playoffs for just about everything - except hockey.  Even as a kid, I always read the Sports Section (and the comics) in the paper.  We got both the morning and evening papers, so I would check to see if there were new stats or transactions.  I loved transactions - trades, injury reports, stuff like that.  [Side Note: Do you remember when there were two different papers?  Was that just a West Palm Beach thing?  I loved it.  The Palm Beach Post came in the morning and The Evening News came at dinner.  It was shocked to find out they were the same company.]  I read Sports Illustrated and Inside Sports.

Sports was one thing my dad and I connected on.  I used to watch football with him on Saturdays and Sundays.  We would watch Atlanta Hawks basketball on Superstation TBS at night.  We avoided Braves games, because we both hated the Braves.  My grandmother was a big fan of them, though.  We always watched the MLB playoffs and World Series.  The Super Bowl was a big deal at our house - as I've mentioned on here before.  So were the Thanksgiving day games and New Year's bowls.  We didn't cheer for the same teams.  In fact, our house was a conglomeration of fan bases that hated each other.  My dad rooted for the Bears, Celtics, and Hurricanes (I don't know who he liked in baseball - he didn't like baseball).  And he hated the Dolphins, Notre Dame, and Braves.  My brother went for the Redskins, Lakers, Expos (they trained in WPB), and USC Trojans.  I was a fan of the Cowboys, Hawks, Yankees, and Georgia Bulldogs.  So we had our share of arguments and loved ridiculing each others' teams.  To this day, I still find it hilarious that Dallas' one win in 1989 was over the Redskins.  Haha.

So I loved sports.  I have blogged on this site 46 times about sports.  On my Darth Fatso site, I blogged about the Super Bowl and how my eating changing affected that event.  I have an entire other blog about my fantasy football league.  (See, I DO spare you from inane writings sometimes.)  But now, I just can't do it any more.  I can't pretend.  I have tried over the years to make it work.  But each sports has, in turn, just done irreparable harm.  What's it called?  Irreconcilable differences.

MLB: Baseball didn't have to do much.  I never really loved the sport.  It was kind of the thing I watched while the real sports were on break.  As I got older, I got less and less interested.  But there were some things about it that were undeniably attractive.  First, the teams trained down in Florida.  This meant that it was easy to get to watch baseball in person.  Second, the tickets were cheap.  If you wanted to go to a Marlins or Rays game (Why would you, when I lived there?), you could do it for under ten bucks.  But, when the 1994-1995 strike happened, that put the sport on life support.  I had put up with work stoppages in other sports and figured you just deal with it.  But this one cancelled the World Series - the only thing of redeeming value in baseball.  I was just about through with them.  I, like many Americans, got sucked back in during the McGwire/Sosa home run race.  As a Yankees fan, I loved their emergence again as a dynasty.  But the final blow came with steroids.  It seemed like nothing good that happened since that strike was real.  Every big name guy was on drugs.  And the Yankees were the worst offending team.  I broke with them after the Mitchell Report fingered TWENTY-SIX players on that team.  I have enjoyed how the Tampa Bay Rays have built their team.  But the way the big money teams raid the small money ones still irks me.  I go entire seasons without watching a game.

NBA: I think the first blow was when Shaq left the Magic.  I really connected with that team while I lived in Orlando.  I went to a few games.  I watched most of them.  My close friends were all Magic fans.  And the team was a good one to like - upstanding guys (for the most part), nice management, lucky lottery picks.  They should have been a dynasty.  But Shaq was a selfish jerk and I realized just how toxic the Orlando media was (and still are - just wait until they shove Howard out of town.  They aren't happy unless they are mad at the Sentinel.)  I had rooted for Jordan and loved watching him play.  I got over the Shaq betrayal and got up for the next Magic run when they signed Grant Hill and T-Mac.  Whoops.  I picked myself back up when they got Dwight Howard and make a title run a few years ago.  But something happened when LeBron James bolted for Miami.  Something broke in the NBA.  It has always been the most selfish of the leagues, when it came to players.  It is the one where one player has the most clout over a team.  One player can make a difference, sell tickets, push a team into the spotlight.  But one player can't do it all.  In one player could have done it, it would have been LeBron.  He tried and almost did it.  But he wasn't strong enough.  And he got tired.  So he bolted to Miami.  (To be fair, we have seen other guys do this too - Garnett, Barkley, Drexler.  James was just the most blatant.)  Since then, Carmelo moped his way out of Denver and Deron Williams griped his way out of Utah.  It was like players realized they truly had the full control now.  I know Dwight Howard is going to leave.  If I was him, I would.  He can't carry that franchise and the management is too stupid to get him help.  Plus, the NBA is headed for a lockout this summer anyway.  I just can't put up with it.

NFL:  This was the heartbreaker.  I always thought I would have the NFL.  They were my favorite sport.  It is the league I am the most invested in.  I've been to more NFL games than any other sport - except maybe UCF football.  I watch the most NFL.  My kids even recognize this.  I handled my transition away from the Cowboys to Tampa and Jax okay.  I even put up with labor issues before.  Free agency?  Okay, we'll deal.  Obnoxiously high prices?  Punk players?  I'll overlook it.  But two things did it for me.  The first was the concussion issue.  I really read a lot about this over the last year.  I was reading the early stuff, too - not just after the NFL started to try to cover their butts.  It is scary.  People are literally killing themselves to play this sport.  And the worst part is how it affecting kids and teens.  The attention is all on the NFL.  They have players dying in their 40s with massive brain damage.  But think about these kids who are playing like their professional idols.  How bad is it going to be for them?!?  I honestly can see a day where football as a whole gets shut down due to safety hazards.  The NFL is walking a dangerous line.  They are addressing the issue without admitting they knew anything was wrong.  What happens when we find out they had access to these studies years ago?  How many lawsuits are going to hit from families of former players?  How will colleges justify offering this sport?  The second fatal problem was the current lockout.  It isn't that the sport is suffering.  As Bill Simmons explained on ESPN the other day, this whole battle is two guys trying to decide how to divvy up an enormous pile of money.   Eight billion dollars are on the table.  And these sides are fighting over who gets what.  Not trying to split up fifty bucks.  EIGHT BILLION DOLLARS.

This gets at the crux of my problem with professional sports.  I know there are other issues at play like medical care for retired players and licensing stuff.  But the real issue is this money pile.  I have a hard time watching that and not getting furious.  Did you know that teachers in Florida are about to go on a merit based pay scale?  These woefully underpaid individuals - the people who we are trusting to educate future generations of adults - are now going to have their income determined by student performance.  BUT, the catch is, this performance is on some stupid wacky unfair standardized test.  The test does not take into account cultural background, learning style, test taking style.  It has no consideration in it for the individual student or class.  Everyone must take the same stupid test.  The instructions for it are actually counterproductive for students to do well on it.  It is geared to auditory learners.  And schools monkey around with the scheduling of it so they have enough time for make up testing due to rampant absences during test week.  So, these teachers who are barely making enough to justify taking this job, are now going to see their pay cut if their students don't do well enough on this test.  Oh, that is in addition to having to pay for supplies and snacks and rewards out of their own pocket. All of this so the state can save some money?!?  And then we have a group of people fighting over EIGHT BILLION DOLLARS while my daughter's excellent superior amazing teacher is wondering if she can afford to keep teaching.  Fury.  And, yes, this is more a problem with society than with sports in general.  But that certainly doesn't mean I have to continue supporting that flawed societal decision.

COLLEGE SPORTS:  My last refuge had been college sports.  I love UCF.  I cheer for their teams and watch their games.  I get excited when they start to do well and realize their potential.  They have started to get some bigger named athletes.  Their recruitment is improving.  Their facilities are top notch. Bowl appearances, bowl wins, national rankings.  It is all finally happening.  So I have something left to hold on to.  Sure, college sports seems dirty at times.  There are recruiting violations all over the place.  Players are getting arrested.  Coaches bail on their teams for bigger pay days.  But those are bigger schools.  UCF doesn't do that.  Ok, fine, they've had their share of players cheating and dying and stuff.  But that was under old leadership.  These new coaches and administrators are clean and above board.  the UCF football team had one of the highest graduation rates in the NCAA - right up there with Stanford and the Ivy League schools.  They had one of the lowest arrest rates.  Good place.  I even started to admire George O'Leary after consecutive winning seasons, reading about the grad rates, and the recruitment.  So what if Ohio State is now shown to be dirty?  So what if we know that in a few years UConn will have to return the title hardware and Auburn will forfeit every game Cam Newton played in?  Who cares if the BCS is so stupid and corrupt that it makes the national title an annual joke.  UCF isn't like that.

Except they are.  After the biggest recruiting year ever at UCF - national praise for both football and basketball classes - the whole thing starts to stink.  Turns out some guy from Chicago that is tied to basketball players is not who he says he is.  He's tied to an agent.  Suddenly UCF's Chicago pipeline is called into question - including how we got Marcus and Jeff Jordan and the big name guys this year.  The top notch QB we signed from Louisville tries to back out of his letter of intent.  O'Leary won't let him.  Things start to look murky.  It was then that I knew that UCF had really hit the big time.  They were dirty just like everyone else.  When I talk about this with my friends, they all say the same thing.  "You know, all the team do it.  They all cheat.  It really comes down to who cheats less and who covers it up better."  So why am I supporting this?  I am teaching my kids to play fair, not lie, not steal, not cheat.  I am trying to make them good citizens who follow the rules.  And then I am supporting an institution that is about who breaks the rules in the least obvious way?

Sports is always about getting an edge.  This drug isn't technically illegal - yet.  Try to squeeze in one more offseason workout.  Text one more recruit ten more times.  Hire this guy to put you in touch with this coach.  Keep it under the table.  Get together with other players to plot out your free agency so you can play together - three years before you are actually a free agent.  The whole thing is dirty.  We have gotten to where we assume everyone is dirty.  Lance Armstrong?  We know he cheated.  The mounds of evidence point to that.  Worse, it points to a massive conspiracy to keep it quiet.  Will you be stunned if he is proven to be a doper?  No, you probably will be to know he wasn't.  Is there a single athlete that would surprise you to be revealed as a user?  Is there a single college team that would be a shock if it came out they cheated?  I know that I risk sounding like a bitter old man, but there was a day when sports pointed us to something good.  It showed us heroes who went above and beyond, who trained their bodies to the peak of human skill.  It gave us lessons on the triumph of the human spirit.  It offered hope to millions who saw it as a way to escape their lives of poverty and desperation.  At times, it unified the country behind powerful community experiences - the World Series after 9/11, the first Monday Night Football game in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.  Now, though, it is hard to even imagine feeling that way about sports.  In fact, it seems a little silly that we ever attributed such a high place to something like sports.

At this point, the entire industry is ridiculous.  The whole thing is dirty.  It's all about money and power and none of it is about fun or the game.  I have intentionally NOT pushed my kids towards sports.  It used to be that you had kids get into sports to teach them about teamwork and hard work and loyalty and all that good stuff.  Now, I keep them away because I'm afraid of what they'll really learn.  How long before they are pushed to play through an injury, to take some kind of enhancement?  How long before my daughter's life would be taken over by gymnastics practicing?  How many games before my son gets his bell rung and is told to get back out there?  I just don't think I can do it any more.  How bad is my apathy?  The NHL and NBA are both in their playoff runs.  Baseball is in full swing.  And I have spent the last week watching my Burn Notice DVDs and playing Monster Dash on my iPhone instead of watching a single sporting event.  Last night, I checked ESPN.com and saw that the Heat and Bulls were tied with under a minute left in the fourth quarter.  Instead of putting on the game, hoping to see something amazing, I went to bed.  I didn't care at all.  Isn't that what you always hear?  You know a relationship is dead when you don't even fight or argue or scream any more?  You just don't even care?  That's me.  The dashboard of my blog is littered with half written posts griping about sports that I never even finished.  They just get to be "I've already written this.  What's the point."  It's over.  That's not to say the old feelings will never be tapped into again - with some special game or exciting season.  But I don't think it will ever be the same.  I always heard that sports helped to show us the best mankind had to offer.  Honestly, now it merely shows us the worst.  That sounds like a toxic situation to me.  It's time to move on.

Changing Face of Sports

The Super Bowl is coming up in a little over a week.  This is the biggest single sporting event in the country.  Some would argue for March Madness - but that is spread out across weeks.  The Super Bowl is just a mammoth day.  It is treated the same as a holiday.  Stores put on Super Bowl sales - mainly electronics, food, and electronics stores.  Non-sports news devotes significant time to covering it.  It is just huge.  In fact, the hype surrounding the game has basically dwarfed the game.  Rarely does the game itself measure up or carry the same interest as the concept of the game.  Sure, some years like the Patriots/Giants matchup a few years ago and Saints/Colts last year can actually hold our interest.  But, for every game like that there is a Steelers/Seahawks that doesn't.

I've written about the Super Bowl several times on this site.  I've examined how the Super Bowl gains and loses interest based on how many national/regional/local teams are involved.   I've talked about how important the event is to me.  I've even looked at how the Super Bowl contributed to my eating problems over on my Darth Fatso blog.  This year, I wanted to look at the matchup - along with a little on the issue of loyalty in today's sporting world, especially when it comes to the Super Bowl.

For most of the fans of the other 30 NFL teams, you probably don't really care too much about the outcome of this game.  Sure, Browns fans hope the Steelers get annihilated.  The same goes for Vikings and Bears fans with the Packers.  But your average Dolphin fan or Cowboy fan or Rams fan (are there those?) probably doesn't really have a rooting interest.  [If you are gambler, of course that is thrown out the window due your financial interest.]  This year's contest has two very popular teams - ones who have a long history, many Super Bowl wins, a huge national fan base.  They are two of the six or eight truly national teams - franchises that have large groups of fans all over the country.  So, for the NFL, this is a great matchup.  People have a knowledge of the Packers and Steelers.  The game sounds important.  It has a Super Bowl aura about it - unlike something like Jaguars/Seahawks or Chargers/Lions.  Those games don't have the regal sound like this one does.

The really strange thing about this matchup, though, is that it shouldn't work.  Yes, there is a ton of history and everything.  But leagues always are hoping for matchups between big market teams.  You know, the LA and NY and Chicago and Dallas teams.  They want the ratings those teams bring - between their huge population and former residents.  Green Bay and Pittsburgh hardly qualify.  They are "small market" teams.  In every other sport, Pittsburgh is always in danger.  The Pirates are horrible.  The Penguins nearly disappeared a few years ago.  They don't even have an NBA team.  Green Bay is known for freezing weather, cheese, beer, and Brett Favre - and the legacy of an old team.  Basically, the city's entire identity is wrapped up in this team.  Without it, that city is just another Duluth or Lansing - a frigid northern city.

Leagues also want to showcase their super duper megastars.  They want Kobe and LeBron and Jeter involved.  They want Sid the Kid and Peyton/Eli Manning in it at the end.  In today's sports culture, the superstar is more important to the league than the team.  Free agency has seriously eroded team loyalty.  It used to be a team would sign a player and he would play there his whole career.  They went hand in hand. Think of the great players and you immediately think of their team.  Now, though, players jump ship all the time - even the big name guys.  Look at LeBron to see this demonstrated the best.  He should have stayed in Cleveland forever.  Those two should have gone together - with kids growing up as Cavs AND James fans.  Instead, he left for Miami.  Overnight, there were a ton of "Heat Fans."  Team loyalty isn't there.  It's hard.  You get attached to a team, then they trade half the team.  I'm a Magic fan.  I like the way the organization is run.  So I follow the team, and develop a fan relationship with the players.  You get to know them and connect with them.  Then they don't get resigned.  Or the team trades them away and takes on some head case (Arenas).  Shaq is the poster child for this.  Easily one of the ten best players ever - and he's played on SIX teams (and counting).

But the Steelers and Packers aren't jam packed with these stars.  The biggest name is Big Ben Roethlisberger - someone with a seriously damaged reputation.  Aaron Rodgers, while one of the best QBs in the NFL, still isn't a "name" player yet.  Troy Polamalu and Clay Matthews are both stars, but not on the same plane as the big names (Brady, Brees, Manning) - largely because they are on defense.  The rest of the roster is filled with guys doing their jobs without the fanfare.

The thing is, these are actually easy teams to root for.  They are doing things right.  The Packers are not owned by some mega-billionaire software developer or former Russians mobster.  The team is owned by the fans - people who bought shares in it years ago.  How cool is that?  Back when I was a child picking teams, I didn't care about that stuff.  I just hated the Packers because they had ugly colors.  Then they kept messing around with the Cowboys and Bucs.  Now, though, as I get more and more disgusted with the business end of sports - something like the Packers' ownership situation would get me to root for a team like that.  The Steelers are a family-owned team from the old days of the league.  They don't overpay for big name free agents.  Frequently they lose players to other raiding teams (Randel-El, Santonio Holmes).  But they just rebuild and challenge again.  They are loyal to their players and coaches - but they don't tolerate idiocy.  (Proof of that was when they seriously considered cutting Roethlisberger during his scandal this year.)  They have only had three coaches in the last 40 years  (Wha!?!?) - Chuck Noll 1969-1991, Bill Cowher 1992-2006, Mike Tomlin 2007-present.  And, with the way they treat coaches and how well Tomlin has done (and how young he is), he could be there for another thirty years.

The Steelers and Packers both have so many positives.  They have two of the best stadiums in the NFL - legendary Lambeau and the beautiful Heinz Field.  Their uniforms are two of the best in the league.  The Steelers are 6-1 in Super Bowls.  The Packers are 3-1.  Together they hold 20% of all Super Bowl titles. They have likable coaches, players, owners.  And both are located in hard-working cities with hard-working citizens who "deserve" something to rally behind.

This is why I find it so hard to believe an adult can stick with one team their whole life.  It may be different for someone who grows up in an area with a rabid fan base - like New York or Boston (shudder) or St. Louis.  But for most Americans who are trying to pick a team, how do you stay loyal?  Things change over time.  People change.  I don't like the same things I liked as a kid.  Why would I like the same teams?  I used to eat fern leaves and paint from off the chair in our living room.  I don't do that now.  I used to think the Flinstones were the funniest thing ever.  I owned albums by Nelson and Color Me Badd.  I had big round glasses.  Times change.  People change.  I'm older with a family.  I struggle financially and have a hard time having tons of sympathy for "financially strapped billionaires."  Different things are important to me.  When I was younger, something like uniform color or the team having the same name as my street (Georgia Avenue - UGA) could sway things for me.  Now, though, other things matter.

I used to have a complete set of NFL pencils.  They all laid there in a tray - each one painted solid in the team colors, with the team name written in the secondary color.  Later, I got another set with fancier markings - the logos, mascots.  I never used either set.  I just would arrange them in the order that I liked the teams.  Dallas was always first.  Washington was always last (biggest Dallas rivalry, also as a way to tick off my brother - a Redskin fan).  The Dolphins were always second to last - actually last, but the whole brother thing kept them from really going where they deserved.  Things in the middle would change over time.  But the bottom ten or so never changed much.  Washington, Miami, Oakland, Jets, PACKERS, STEELERS, Giants, 49ers, Broncos.  Without fail, those teams were in my bottom tier.  I hated those teams.

So imagine my surprise when I was watching the championship games last weekend.  Jets, Steelers, Packers, Bears.  I couldn't care less about those teams.  The Bears was the only team I never "hated" - largely because my dad was a huge Bears fan.  Yet, I found myself rooting for the Packers and Steelers.  As I thought back, I realized this was not the first time, either.  I remember rooting for Pittsburgh against the Cardinals two years ago and the Seahawks in 2006.  Why was I rooting for the Steelers?!?  And why in the world was I wanted Green Bay to win?  That was a new thing for me.  I realized that my total hatred of them really disappeared when Favre did.  Now, I admired those teams.  I had positive feelings for them.  That can't happen, can it?  If you hate a team, hate it forever.  Sure, if Pittsburgh was playing Jacksonville, I would have been rooting for them all to have their legs fall off.  But in this case, I actually found myself aligning with former enemies.

I've changed.  The league has changed.  Teams have changed.  Things that used to be important aren't now.  I loathe the Cowboys.  They used to be my team.  I had so much Dallas Cowboy stuff.  That was true through college.  But at some point, I just couldn't take them any more.  I got tired of the signing of guys of poor character.  I couldn't stand Jerry Jones and his weasel act.  Their ego and overinflated view of themselves just got to be too much.  Now, they have dropped into that bottom tier.  And a couple other teams have crawled out.  I'm excited for this game.  Either way, a good team will win.  The teams seem to match up well.  It should be a fun watch.  And, of course, the commercials and movie trailers will make up for it if the game is a snoozefest.  I just find it humorous that a matchup that would have sent me to the movie theater a decade ago actually has captured my interest.